The art of water electrolysis is an old one and is highly developed. Specifically, it has been known for about 80 years that nickel electrodes employed in a strong aqueous solution of KOH are electrochemically catalytic for the release of oxygen from the electrolyte at low overpotentials. Likewise, it is known that low alloy steel is electrochemically catalytic for the release of hydrogen at low hydrogen overpotentials. In sintered form, nickel and steel are excellent electrochemical catalysts. However, sintered nickel or steel structures are expensive, contributing excessively to the capital costs of an electrolyzer. It is desired to provide high surface area, metal faced electrodes which give the electrochemical characteristics of sintered steel or nickel so as to retain the economic operating advantages of sintered metal electrodes while at the same time both incorporating a cheap base structure and being capable of being manufactured at low cost.